Hungry

This semester I have been working with a project in the nutrition science lab at Purdue.  The project is called Voices for Food, and is currently being run in five other states.  The main goal of the project is to study the nutrients found in food pantries and how these affect the food pantry user’s diet.  A second goal is to help food pantry owners make their food and pantry healthier for their clients.  Most of my responsibilities include recruiting new participants into the study.  This involves going to several food pantries throughout the state, observing the pantry, and telling the users about our study.  They take a survey about their background and their household’s food insecurity, and then do a 24-hour diet recall.

            Although I have been doing this for about a month now, yesterday it really hit me.  We talk about these “vulnerable populations” and “malnutrition” and so on and so forth in classes, but yesterday I saw it right in front of me.  I was talking with a woman who participated in our study about her food insecurity.  The survey is set up on a laptop, but this woman preferred I read it to her.  Some of the questions ask things like, Do you ever have to go a whole day without eating because you didn’t have enough money for food? and Have you ever skipped meals because there wasn’t enough money for food?  and the responses ranged from very often – never.  For most of these questions, the woman shook her head vigorously, “Very often, every day.  There’s never enough food. There’s never enough money.”  I talked to several people throughout the day with similar answers.  Some were better off than others.  Some described sharing food with neighbors/friends to get more of a variety.  Some shared that they visit several food pantries a month, EVERY month (most pantries only allow households to visit once a month, however, there usually isn’t one big system to monitor this, so “food pantry hopping” is acceptable, and necessary).  Near the end of the food pantry hours, actually after the pantry had officially closed for the day, a woman came bursting through the door: “My friend needs help.  She doesn’t have anything.  She thought your pantry was open till four, but she’s too late now.  Can you help her please?”  The woman at the front desk responded without even the slightest regard to the hours “Of course, what does she need? Food? Toilet paper? Follow me.”  And they scurried into the pantry, about the size of a small bedroom. 

            I talked to even more people and could probably talk about my day even more, but I’ll try to keep it short for the sake of this blog post.  As I was driving home, I was exhausted, and thinking about what I was going to make for dinner.  I thought about my refrigerator, my stove, my sink with running water, my leftovers from the chili I made the other night, the cookout my friends were having tomorrow.  I am not vulnerable.  But I was sad and frustrated at how vulnerable the people I interacted with were.  I hoped that they had enough food to last them, although I knew it wouldn’t keep most of them and their family comfortable (let alone “healthy”).  I thought about this blog, and worldwide food insecurity.  You always see those cute little kids on TV for those NGOs, etc. that will donate food to them, but the same thing is happening literally right here in Indiana…  I thought “Man, at least the States have food pantries,” and was sad at how some/most developing countries don’t have this sort of system set up for them. 

I hope that the project I am involved in can make a difference someday.  Food insecurity is such a heart breaking issue, and I am really thankful that we have systems like food pantries in our country.  I was wondering how all of you reflect on this issue?  In the States and globally?